1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to watches, and more particularly to a watch having a transparent member with decorative indicia thereon for placement between the interior of a removeable crystal member and the watch face.
Watches have been used for the primary purpose of keeping time for many years, with the electronics revolution bringing the advent of highly precise watch movements which are available for very low prices. It has therefore not been surprising that the emphasis in watch design of late has been in the area of appearance of the watch rather than in the area of the watch mechanisms themselves. Recently, a number of watches have been successfully introduced which have interchangeable watch cases and bands to change the appearance of the watch.
The concept of using a single watch movement with different watch cases and bands is not new, having been illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 2,706,379, to Fitzpatrick, Jr. forty years ago. However, while Fitzpatrick, Jr. was a high quality, high price device, the popular watches of today are fashion accessories which have much lower prices and typically use plastic materials to achieve a low manufacturing cost. While switchable watch cases and bands have proven extremely popular, they do not change the basic appearance of the watch itself, since the watch movement itself, including the watch face, is not changed at all by changing the case and the band.
One approach to changing the watch face is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,473,304 and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,525,077, both to Ketner. The Ketner references teach a toroid-shaped watch having a variety of decorative circular inserts which may be inserted into the interior of the toroid-shaped watch itself. The disadvantage of the Ketner references is that they require a toroid-shaped watch movement, which is not a standard watch configuration. Thus, production of the Ketner designs is not inexpensive, which represents a rather substantial disadvantage.
Another approach is to have replaceable watch face plates, which may be provided in a number of different designs to change the appearance of the watch. This approach is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 3,269,108, to Mottironi, and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,660,992, to Paul et al. The Mottironi device is elegant in its design, having a pair of interchangeable face plate halves which are spring-loaded to retain them in place. The Mottironi device has a singular disadvantage inherent to its design, which is the high degree of precision required to manufacture it. This unfortunately results in an elegant device which is expensive to manufacture.
The Paul et al. device has a hinged door which opens to allow a slotted face plate to be removably installed. The Paul et al. device is of simpler design than the Mottironi device, and it is easy to change face plates in the Paul et al. design. However, the slotted face plate is at least somewhat marred in its design by the existence of the slot. In addition, the Paul et al. design, like the Mottironi design, uses a removeable watch face plate, which requires that the stems upon which the watch hands are mounted be longer than a standard design, which results in additional cost due to the requirement that a non-standard watch movement be used.
Worth noting is a twist on this design as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,777,475, to Grossan. The Grossan reference uses a rotatable face plate mounted above a stationary face plate to count various diverse things such as medication, calories, cigarettes, etc. However, the Grossan face plates are not interchangeable or removeable, and thus are of little pertinence to the present invention.
The most recent design variation is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,008,869, to Dweck. The Dweck reference is truly unique in that it uses changeable opaque discs functioning as face plates which may be installed in a watch under a transparent liquid crystal watch display. The liquid crystal watch display is thus visible over the opaque discs. The Dweck reference thus successfully allows for the uses af changeable face plates, but with a liquid crystal watch display appearing on top of the face plates. Its primary disadvantage is that its construction is unconventional, and does not allow for the use of standard watch movements.
It is accordingly the primary objective of the present invention that it provide a novel watch design in which the appearance of the face of a watch using a conventional watch movement may be easily and conveniently changed. In addition, the present invention must also be capable of greatly changing the appearance of the watch, while simultaneously not impeding the ability of the wearer to see the time displayed on the watch. It is yet another objective of the present invention that the procedure required to change the appearance of the face of the watch be both easy and quick to accomplish, such that even a child may do it.
It is an additional objective of the present invention that it be equally applicable to the various designs of watches having a wide variety of different sizes and shapes. The design of the watch of the present invention must be relatively simple to keep its cost of manufacture low, while simultaneously being sufficiently rugged to assure the watch a long and trouble-free operating life. Finally, it is also an objective that all of the aforesaid advantages and objectives of the present invention be achieved without incurring any substantial relative disadvantage.